HR & Recruiting · head to head
Breathe HR vs Rive
The short version
- Only Rive has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Breathe HR pricing is banded by headcount, starting at £24 per month for 1 to 10 people, £44 per month for 11 to 20 and £99 per month for 21 to 50; Rive limited ecosystem of plugins and third-party templates compared to established tools like After Effects
- They diverge on capability: Breathe HR covers Employee Database, Rive covers Vector animation.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Breathe HR and Rive actually diverge.
| Attribute | Breathe HR | Rive |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | £13/month | Free |
| Pricing model | subscription | Unknown |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Platforms | Web, Ios, Android | Web, iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Game engines |
| Category | HR & Recruiting | Design Tools |
| Founded | 2012 | 2019 |
Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Breathe HR
- Employee Database
- Absence Management
- Document Storage
- HR Reporting
- Performance Management
- Training
- Slack
- Google Workspace
Only in Rive
- Vector animation
- State machines
- Skeletal animation
- Code export
- Real-time preview
- Flutter
- React
- iOS SDK
Both cover
- Web support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Breathe HR
- Holiday, absence and sickness tracking for a UK small businessnot Rive
- Storing HR documents, contracts and e-signaturesnot Rive
- Performance reviews and onboarding workflows for small teamsnot Rive
Rive
- UI animationsnot Breathe HR
- Interactive graphicsnot Breathe HR
- Game animationsnot Breathe HR
- Micro-interactionsnot Breathe HR
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Breathe HR
- Pricing is banded by headcount, starting at £24 per month for 1 to 10 people, £44 per month for 11 to 20 and £99 per month for 21 to 50
- Plans are capped by band up to 151 to 200 people, so it is not sold to organisations above that range on the published ladder
- The free trial is 14 days
- Health and safety, e-learning and other modules are sold as add-ons on top of the core HR plan
- Pricing is quoted in pounds and the product is marketed to UK SMEs
Rive
- Limited ecosystem of plugins and third-party templates compared to established tools like After Effects
- Not ideal for simple looping animations or static graphics that do not require interactivity
- Production use can expose bugs and rough edges in the editor and runtime
- No support for 3D animations; limited to 2D vector-based graphics
Pricing, plan by plan
Breathe HR
£13/month- Core$13/month
- Employee Database
- Absence Management
- Documents
- People Management$18/month
- All Core features
- Performance
- Goals
Rive
Free- FreeFree
- Design and animate
- Team collaboration
- Cannot export or ship
- Cadet$9/month
- Export and ship animations
- Up to 1 team member seat
- Voyager$32/month
- Multiple team member seats
- Advanced features
- Priority support
- Enterprise$120/month
- Custom solutions
- Dedicated support
Which should you pick?
Choose Breathe HR if
- You need employee database.
- You work on Web, Ios, Android.
- You also want absence management.
Choose Rive if
- You need vector animation.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Game engines.
- You also want state machines.
Questions people ask
- Is Breathe HR or Rive better?
- Neither clearly leads. Breathe HR starts at £13/month and Rive at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Breathe HR or Rive?
- Rive has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at £13/month for Breathe HR and Free for Rive.
- Does Breathe HR or Rive run on more platforms?
- Breathe HR runs on Web, Ios, Android. Rive runs on Web, iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Game engines.
- Can I use Rive for free?
- Yes. Rive has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Breathe HR starts at £13/month.
- What is Breathe HR best used for?
- Breathe HR is most often used for holiday, absence and sickness tracking for a uk small business, storing hr documents, contracts and e-signatures, performance reviews and onboarding workflows for small teams. Of those, holiday, absence and sickness tracking for a uk small business and storing hr documents, contracts and e-signatures are not what Rive is typically brought in for.
- What can Breathe HR do that Rive cannot?
- Breathe HR covers Employee Database, Absence Management, Document Storage, HR Reporting. Rive covers Vector animation, State machines, Skeletal animation, Code export. Both handle Web support.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Rive: Does Rive replace Adobe After Effects?
No. After Effects creates video files ideal for broadcast, explainers, and YouTube content. Rive creates interactive runtime files that respond to user input in real-time. Use After Effects for video production and Rive for app UI, micro-interactions, and responsive animations in web and mobile products.
SourceRive: What platforms can I export Rive animations to?
Rive exports to Web, iOS, Android, macOS, and game engines (Unity, Unreal, Defold). It also integrates with frameworks like React, React Native, Flutter, and no-code builders like Framer, Webflow, and Wix Studio.
SourceRive: Is Rive free to use?
Yes, Rive offers a free plan that allows you to design, animate, and collaborate for free. Paid plans (Cadet $9/mo, Voyager $32/mo, Enterprise $120/mo) are required to export animations and ship them to production environments.
SourceRive: Does Rive work with React, Vue, and other web frameworks?
Yes. Rive provides official runtimes and libraries for React, React Native, and Flutter. The Rive Renderer is GPU-accelerated and runs at 120fps with MIT-licensed runtimes you can contribute to and modify.
SourceRive: Can I create 3D animations with Rive?
Rive is a 2D vector animation tool focused on interactive vector graphics. For 3D design and animation, consider Spline or Blender. Rive excels at UI animations, micro-interactions, and responsive 2D graphics.
SourceRelated pages
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- Rive vs BambooHR
- Rive vs Workday
- Rive vs Culture Amp
- Rive vs Freshteam
- Rive vs TINYpulse
- Rive vs Zoho People
- Rive vs 15Five
- Rive vs Bonusly
- Rive vs CharlieHR
- Rive vs Kudos
- Rive vs Lattice
- Rive vs Personio
- Rive vs Achievers
- Rive vs Darwinbox
- Rive vs Employment Hero
- Rive vs greytHR
- Rive vs HiBob
- Rive vs Homebase
- Rive vs Adobe Illustrator
- Rive vs Affinity Designer
- Rive vs Gravit Designer
- Rive vs Linearity Curve
- Rive vs ProtoPie
- Rive vs Spline
- Rive vs Abstract
- Rive vs Balsamiq Wireframes
- Rive vs Canva
- Rive vs Krea
- Rive vs Magnific
- Rive vs Marvel
- Rive vs Subframe
- Rive vs Vectr
- Rive vs Zeplin


